Huh? What was Kitt going on about and why did he take a few steps away?? No magic? OH. OH. OH NO. He forgot. He didn't want to get him in trouble.. that hadn't been his intention. It was just instinct for him.

Noah blanched, he almost turned as white as his shirt (well not really - he was just very, very pale) and hid his wand immediately. "Oops... I forgot. My bad. Sorry..." Guess they couldn't use this. He put the mice down and felt utterly ashamed. Please no one else look over here. "Ermm... Let's grab the food then....." He headed over and grabbed the treats, handing some to Kitt. "Sorry... if its brought up.. I'll take the blame. You had nothing to do with it... Besides we shouldn't use the mice now.."

Then he proceeded to put treats down, ignoring the amused look that Aslan was giving him.

Phoebe set Beans carefully on the ground before dropping down next to her on her hands and knees. This was a better way to deal with creatures, right on their level. She could see the world from Beans' eyes and understand what it would take to create a champion cat. "Okay, Beans. You're gonna just... go that way, okay? Like..." Phoebe pointed emphatically toward the course.

Beans did not care about the course. Beans did not care about the human kneeling next to her, except that she smelled a little like food and food was worth caring about.

Beans cared a LITTLE bit about the feathery thing that might be a toy and might be a bird, and she immediately dropped on her back and rolled it up into the air, holding her new prize above her head.

"No... no, Beans, that's... now you're just laying there." Phoebe rolled over and laid there too, and it didn't have much to recommend it. She tried, unsuccessfully to retrieve the feather wand from Beans' grasp, only to get a poked finger and hurt feelings for her troubles.

Fine. Fine? Fine. "Just. Be. That. Way." With lots of grumbles, Phoebe pulled off one shoe and sock, and she dangled the sock over Beans' head. The cat rolled onto her belly and gamely pawed at the sock. There. "Okay, follow the lovely sock and you can have it to eat at the end of the course, ok?"

Avalon groaned as Shadow continued to stare her down, unwilling to move on to the next jump. "Shadow! Come!" She jingled the toy, trying to coax the stubborn cat along. Rolling her eyes, she caved and reached into her pocket for a treat. She wanted to save the snacks for the end, but she couldn't afford to lose too much time.

Didn't she know that all she had to do in the first place was hold out a treat? He'd do nearly anything for one of those tasty snacks! At the sight of it, Shadow's ears perked up, and he trotted over happily to his human. He jumped over the bar gracefully before accepting the treat.

Now that was more like it! "Shadow, let's go!" Holding out some more treats, she guided the cat through the rest of the course. They were moving at a pretty steady pace now, save for Shadow's occasional pauses to munch on his treats. Avalon coaxed him through some more hoops and jumps before finally making it to the see-saw. She held a treat in front of the cat's nose, attempting to guide him onto the bar.

This was getting far too tiring. Sure, he liked the snacks, but what was the point of all this? He would rather be hunting down some mice or taking a nice snooze in the --BIRD!!!! Shadow's eyes darted to the sky at the sight of a bird swooping around overhead. The bird dove down toward the obstacle course and continued on gracefully across the grounds. This was much better than those silly toys his human was holding up....this was the real thing! His pupils widened, and Shadow took off with a sprint, leaving everything else behind. He would catch that bird today.

"Yes, Bellchant," WWW repeated as he picked up his clipboard. He was barely containing his joy at finding students to scoop poop for him. He'd missed this, ya know? In the field, he only had a handful of interns to assign tasks to. Now he was seeing punishable offenses left and right. "We'll discuss this in the barn, after class, after you help with the evening tasks for the stable." And Maleficent could watch, heh heh heh.

He watched as she started by using treats to incentivize the kneazle to complete the jump, and marked something down on his clipboard. "Her name's Maleficent, not Merlin," he reminded the Slytherin with a smirk. "Keep going!"



Now here was an effective Future Kneazle Trainer of Britain (FKTB, it was a real club, look it up). Williamson made a few notes as he watched Claudine tempt and lead and coax President through the entire obstacle course in a relatively quick time. AND she was hugging the feline by the end.

He heartily approved, and showed it by giving the Slytherin a big thumbs up. "Well done, Blaze. And President." They'd had a BLAZING fast time, too. Heh.



Yeah, he was watching this debacle, if only because he STRONGLY suspected Lazarus might just try to smuggl a kneazle by the end of class. When he saw Noah pull out his wand (bless his heart),William let out a loud, "NOPE." He saw him attempt to hide his wand, so he decided to take care of it by casting a nonverbal expelliarmus his way. It worked wonderfull, and WWW set Noah's wand down on top of the crate.

"I've got your wand, Nam, don't worry about it. Just try to get the kneazle(s) through the course. You've already wasted a good four minutes with your magic tricks." And as for Lazarus? "Maybe try some treats, eh?"



"It's alright if she doesn't go straight through each obstacle," Williamson called out encouragingly to Octavia. He was really enjoying watching the younger kids and their pets; it melted his cold, old heart for a sec. "Just try to make it through to the end." Coral might have been too playful for this course, heh, but he would like to see her try to make it.



Ahhhhhh, these two. Berlioz was a fussy one, had he failed to mention that? Drew might need to charm the kneazle with something other than toys... but maybe Berlioz would get along swimmingly with the Ravenclaw prefect's kneazle.

"Come on, fellas, I'm timing you two." Yes, he was going to have the older boys work together, or else they might be here all night.



This was another amusing one to watch. The non-cat lovers were really making this class worth the effort, heh heh. "Good, good..." he encouraged the young Slytherin and his kneazle. "Looks like he's into the treats." Smart thinking, hopefully it would keep the kneazle moving.



Williamson had a feeling this wasn't Aboli's first rodeo with trying to train an animal. He snickered a bit as the kneazle seemed interested in the girl's hair. "Go on, Sparticus, show 'er what you can do," he encouraged the playful kneazle. The Hogwarts animals knew better than to do anything TOO mischievous to the students.



It was, indeed, a Monday. But what a way to start the week, huh? "Come on, Gunter, work with Moreau here." He nodded to the Gryffindor. "Treats will work to get them started...." Assuming Gunter could coax Rogina out of the box, that is....



Cece almost sounded Aussie, with the number of times she was saying 'Mate.' Heh. William just smiled a bit in their general direction. He was enjoying himself now that the kids were doing the work and he could just lean here on the crate and...

He heard a soft growl come from beneath him and took his eyes off the obstacle course to check the inside. Oh, look who was awake...



This was good, asking the animal for its choice of name before naming it... William didn't want to ruin the kids' fun, but all the Hogwarts kneazles DID officially have names. He'd brought in a few extra for today's lesson, though, so maybe Naya was working with an unnamed one.

"Don't forget, you can use treats too, Naya," he encouraged her.



....another curious name choice for a kneazle, hmm. Williamson watched the first year and his kneazle, who was not at all interested in moving. "Looks like you caught him at a bad time," the professor joked lightheartedly. Aha. Well. Had Lukas tried bribery with food yet?



"James, I think that kneazle really loves you," Williamson couldn't RESIST calling out to Eiji and his charge. He squinted to see if he could identify which of the school kneazles that was, but he was pretty far away and absolutely determined not to pull out his reading glasses in the middle of a lesson where he'd already been called OLD at least once.

Well anyway. It looked like he wasn't the only one who was going through some stuff. Willy noted on his clipboard that the two girls were going to work together and gestured for Missa to bring the grey kitty forward. "Alright then, Miss Castillo, Miss Renaldi... if you two are ready, you can start the course." And good luck.

This, unfortunately, meant that James and Bub there would be flying solo. Aww.



Shadow was definitely one of the more athletic felines in the barnyard. Williamson jotted that down on his clipboard as he timed Avalon. "Don't worry if Shadow misses a few obstacles," he tried his best to encourage the Ravenclaw. Er... it looked like Shadow was in full hunter mode anyway.



Erm... DID she though? Make sure that Catastrophe didn't eat plastic? Because the look on the cat's face said he sure ate everything else. He didn't toss her a treat because he still wasn't sure that Flora realized the treats were for the animals and not for her, and anyway, as she made her way through the obstacle course, she might pick up a few treats anyway. The other kids were tossing them left and right.

"Maybe try standing Catastrophe up, on all four paws," he suggested kindly. Merlin, how WAS he going to fix this one? Was it too early in the term to suggest euthanasia to a first-year?



....now here was a technique he hadn't seen before. Phoebe's cat was special, that was for sure. "Go on, then, I'm curious to see this outcome." William wrote down USED SOCK and underlined it on his clipboard.



"You're the boss of the cat," Williamson remarked to their next contestant. "Don't give it the option. You're trying to train it, to master this animal." Merlin, if he was sighing at this activity, how was he going to handle the real training?

"You're next," was all Williamson had to say to the calmest fox in Scotland. "Show 'em how it's done, buddy."


And for those who were finished running the course... "I'll be announcing your times shortly. As you finish up, reflect on what went well and what you struggled with in this attempt to train your cat or kneazle." And they could tell him what they thought of this activity out loud, sure.

OOC: About ~24ish more hours to finish up running the course <3

Zach had been a ball of nerves all day. After a series of social and physical blunders, he was ready to call it a wash, but upon finding out today's activity, his confidence was making a return.

With a flourish, Zachary popped his top hat into shape. The thing almost seemed as old and busted up as the castle, but his hat had style. At least he thought so.

Streaky, an orange tabby cat that Zach had befriended in a midwestern American town, peeked it's head out of the hat after the boy tapped it with his wand. With a tiny rune charm on it's collar that glistened in the sun, the small creature playfully batted at the wand before leaping from the hat, and landing on the ground with a stretch.

"Uh...Think it wouldn't be a problem?" Zach motioned towards the obstacle course, folding his hat back flat once more. He knew the cat was lazy, but could be quite impressive when it wanted to be. Streaky must have took pity on the young boy, because the feline took off like a, uh, streak.

Zipping through the course, Streaky exhibited an exceptional amount of focus and finesse. Coming upon a small hurtle, something entered the feline's field of vision. A bird. And with what needed a small hop, the cat leaped, and when the cat leaped it jumped, and when it jumped it flew.

"Sir. Uh. my cat..My cat flew..away.." Dang.

As Isla rounded up her kneazle and gripped the end of the harness in her hand, she turned to face WWW. "Evening tasks," she halfheartedly repeated. "Looking forward to it, Sir." It was like looking forward to a needle in the eye or a fish hook to the foot. "You got anymore of those treats? I'm using them as a training tool." PUH-LEASSSSSSE?! Also, she'd heard that comment about her pet's name. We're on to you, WWW.

She turned back to the obstacle course. Her plan was to use the treat as a sort of training tool, just like she'd explained to the professor. She'd heard about pets being trained that way, so why not kneazles? The next part of the obstacle course was some winding pathway that was anything but straight. Maleficent eyed her owner, or the treat her owner had, that is. Isla picked up the same little ball she'd used before and rubbed the treat on it to give it a scent. She then tossed the ball into the pathway and began to nudge it along with her foot.

Maleficent seemed to watch curiously as Isla rubbed the treat along the ball. As the ball was tossed to the side, the scent followed it. Maleficent wanted the treat that had caused that scent, and so she scurried along after the ball much in the same way she would had the ball been a live mouse. When she reached the end of the winding pathway, she sniffed at the ball just as a piece of the treat landed beside it. The kneazle gobbled up the treat.

Isla watched as the treat landed on the ground and her kneazle devoured it. Was her training methods really working, or was the kneazle just wanting to eat? This was proving to be interesting...

Yes, sir. I know it is, that's why I said it, was the reply that was ultimately bitten back. Instead of saying anything, Nem watched the progress of the treat through the air and onto the ground, and then looked at the kneazle again.

The kneazle in question was young, and was unsure about this creature, but the uncertainty was mostly born from the fact that his fellow felines had not roamed this way yet. Maybe he had a slight instinctive nagging doubt as well, but who could be sure?

It certainly wasn't a nagging enough doubt to stop him from closing down those last few paces to snatch up the treat, however. Omnomnom.

Nem glanced across as Blaze got to her feet and headed off. Luck? Not a real thing, but the sentiment was understood. "You too, Claudine." It was at that point that they noticed the fox over by the way, and an arctic one at that, which obviously had no business being here. Giving a fairly obvious eye roll, Nem turned back to the kneazle.

It had polished off that treat in seconds, and was now looking expectantly at Nem for more. That worked out just fine. Shoutout to Williamson for laying the groundwork for bribery.

"C'mon," they said, and scooped the fluffy grey kneazle up into their arms, stopping by the spilled cat paraphernalia to collect something before heading towards the obstacle course.

Wait.

Hold on.

Wait.

Wait.

The kneazle stiffened, unsure what to make of this. Did something about this just feel strange, or was the blackbird he'd scarfed down for breakfast this morning just repeating on him? No... maybe something really was-...

Hold that thought; were those more treats?

PURRRRRRRRRRR.

If he was honest (and he usually was) Flynn was glad that they weren't supposed to use magic. He was OKAY at magic, but just? Ya know? It was much more fun to just DO things. Speaking of which, he'd spent the first portion of this lesson just.... getting to KNOW his kneazle buddy. Just.... hanging out. Chilling. Letting others go first in their obstacle attempts. Were they supposed to name-- yes? Because he couldn't see a name tag. Well! "Cabriole, are you ready?" Yes he had picked a ballet term. Or you know, a furniture leg term, depending on your perspective. Flynn snuggled the kneazle a bit more and grabbed one of the dangling dazzler toys with the fuzzy fluffy bright feathers on the end of a string that was in turn tied to a stick, and headed to the start line.

Cabriole? Oh this little kneazle had been called worse, and as if to show he didn't mind this particular moniker at all, he capered enthusiastically and then purrhurrumphed for more attention and nuzzles and scritches and really, he DID like these cuddles. Oh wait, what was he supposed to be ready for? What was he--A BIRD! FEATHERS! SWAT SWAT.

Flynn figured it would be hard enough to do this on his own and he wanted to give Cabriole all of his attention anyway so the third year opted for working just on his own this time around. And good! It looked like he picked the right toy! And.... GO! He dazzled the dazzler ahead of the kneazle and laughed in delight as Cabriole almost immediately POUNCED toward it. Flynn danced it out of the way and towards the first obstacle. "Come on Cabriole!"

Hoop! Hoop! Jump! Weave! Ramp! Jump! Balance beam! Jump! Hoop! Seesaw! Was it that easy? Nope. Not really, but Flynn was having a blast all the same, coaxing the kneazle through every single obstacle with a bounce of the dazzler, and a lot of determination. He figured, if Cabriole DIDN'T wanna do it, then he just wouldn't. That would be okay, he'd just pick the Kneazle up and carry him through it, but this WAS more fun. Also he wasn't sure if he could actually fit through those hoops himself? His shoulders were doing that growing thing and it was weird because his brain hadn't caught up so much and he often underestimated the amount of space he would take up in the world and could definitely not wriggle into small nooks and crannies anymore.

Finish line! Flynn dazzled the dazzler some more. "Come on Cabriole! Nearly there!" And...... done! He scooped the kneazle up as soon as they crossed over the finish line and snuggled him. So cute. "You did a great job! So clever! So fast!" He let Cabriole worry at the end of the dazzler, his prey finally caught.

Yissssss! He was the BEST hunter in ALL the land!

Was it over? Could he look now?

Tentatively, Kitt spared a look at his housemate. It was right in time to see him stuffing his wand away but THEN the wand went FLYING. Was he the only one who saw? Was it the professor? He’d gone kinda hard on that “nope”. That was a “not today Satan” nope. The kind that said you were about to ruin someone’s entire career. It’d have been an awful dramatic nope if he wasn’t the one who did that follow through and somehow Kitt didn’t think Professor Williamson was a disappointing man.


And you know what, he appreciated that if push came to shove, Noah wouldn’t let him fall on a sword for him. What a guy.

Confirmation re the wand came seconds later when Williamson explained he had Noah’s wand. Remind him....never to use his in CoMC. Just in case.

Kitt took the treats offered to him, whirling around to properly face the professor when he then suggested treats. He was all beams because the professor was suggesting what he had which preeeeetty much meant it was a foolproof plan. “That was my idea!” He beamed, raising the treats Noah had just given him for the man to see.

Except, they were now running out of time. “Let’s drop the treats quick!” Kitt lowered Sparky to the ground then hurried off to start planting some of the treats about the course, expecting Noah would be doing the same. Once done, he got back to the starting point ready to beg—

“Have you seen Sparky?” Where had that little guy gotten off to? He was BARELY gone a minute.

This tomfoolery had gone on long enough. This regal feline was done being suddenly whirled around, picked up and put down, moved about like furniture. Yes, he was quite done and ready for his nap.

The moment he was set down, he made his way back to the Williamson fellow’s legs, plopped himself down and curled right up. Find a new feline, this one was DONE.

Faye was overjoyed that her answer hard earned Astrid a treat. She contained an inner scream after she had fed the treat to her kitten friend as the rest of the students continued to answer their knowledge to the Professor's question. Some of those answers she hadn't known herself either, so made sure to jot them down as they were being spoken.

Once everyone had answered the Professor's questions, he was moving on to the next part of the lesson, which involved the obstacle course, which all made sense now. She made sure to keep herself composed even though there was a slight jump in her heart rate hearing that they would all be timed to complete the course. Faye looked down at Astrid who once again look up at her. "We can do this right?"

Hi Human, were there more treats? The black and white feline meowed up at her hoping she would receive another treat. She wasn't sure why she'd received the first one, but was not questioning it at all.

The redhead stood with Astrid in her arms, heading towards the pile of toys provided by the Professor. She had a few cat toys that Astrid liked to play with back at home and in her dorm, so took a quick eye ball of what she could possibly grab that might attract her attention to follow her. She pursed her lips before deciding on grabbing one of the toys that had a few feathers dangling from a stick. "Perfect!"

She looked at Astrid again, "Alright, we're going to crush this yes?"

Astrid blinked at her without response, just staring almost to what seemed like she might have been judging her.

"I'll take that as a yes!" Moving towards the upright bars that meant she would need Astrid to maneuver between them like a wriggly snake. Faye took a deep breath before softly placing Astrid down near one end of the bars. Making sure to hide the toy from Astrid until she was ready. "Hello Astrid, oh isn't she a good kitty-Wait, what is this?" Faye gasped revealing the stick with dangling feathers behind her back to attempt to get Astrid's attention. Quickly lowering it to wave it back in forth in nearing the bars for Astrid to follow it.

Wait, what was going on? Why was human making those strange noises like she wanted something from Astrid? What? Oh, she was on the ground now...this was....new...Not used to this feeling on her paws. Was human leaving her here-BIRD! BIRD ON A STICK!

MUST CATCH BIRD AND ANNIHILATE EVIL BIRD!

Immediately lowering herself into a crouching position before lunging at the evil bird to try and catch it, but it was quick and maneuvering between these thin looking trees, but it was not matter, she would catch it!

Faye gasped as Astrid began going after the stick, thank Merlin. She moved quick to keep away from Astrid, but just enough that her cat would keep invested. Watched her feline friend bob and weave through the thin bars all the way to the end until she was through! "Good job Astrid, this way, come on girl!" Moving onto the area where the standing hoops were, going first for the smaller/lower hoop first.

Now where was that evil bird going?! AHA! Behind that hoop? Did it really think it would be protected there? Please.

Crouching low into her hunter's pose once again before quickly hopping through the pathetic hiding spot...but she wouldn't catch it. Sneaky. Wait, it was moving towards another circle behind this one, though it was a little higher! Crawling low once again, her ears perked and eyes widened as it seemed to mock her the entire time. Oh, you will be mine. But alas, she would miss it again. This was beginning to get a little annoying now.

Nina was quite grateful that Missa agreed and only looked back to fix Eiji with a PLEASED look. ”That’s great,” she replied upon looking back at Missa, who was now reaching over to pick one of the kneazles up. She eyed it for a moment, as if trying to assess whether it would be a suitable candidate.

Her eyes opened a few centimeters wider when it jumped out from the Ravenclaw's arms and began to rub itself all of their legs. Hopefully this cat wouldn’t shed. Gray hair would most certainly clash with their black robes. ”Sure, I’ll be right back.”

She quickly left to retrieve two of the toys from the box that Professor Williamson had tipped over. Upon seeing what there was left of the toys, Nina realized that she hadn’t a clue which one their cat would prefer. So she took a few moments to look over their options before deciding the ones that almost resembled wands? If wands had a long string with colorful feathers attached to the end. She grabbed two of these toys and made her way back to Missa, offering her one of them. ”Hope this is okay?”

She dangled her feathers over their kneazle, only to look up when their Professor called their names. Looking back over to her partner, she offered her an uncertain smile. ”Um… Let’s go(?) … kitty?” She tried enticing their new feline friend by dangling the toy over its head. Was she doing this right?

And there goes the lovely treat. Jillian managed to snag it and gave it to her kneazle. Training cats take time, this is a first hand experience of her. Her 2 cats at home took time to be trained. There were a lot of begging involved really. Not all breeds are difficult but it's quite a percentage compared to other animals that can be trained. Then again Professor Williamson is the expert here and he probably has his own tricks on how to train cats and kneazles a bit easier. She's absolutely here for that!

Since they're not using magic for this, she grabbed the harness and treats. If there is one thing Jillian is sure of is that some animals and creatures will always respond to food. Let's put that to test. She grabbed her kneazle and placed it near the obstacle. She placed her arm around its body to carefully put the harness and gripping it, making sure that it is just right she lowered the kneazle on the ground.


The kneazle's sleep was woken up because of these kids who wants to play... boring. Not something he enjoys doing. One moment all was fine and dandy on the girl's lap and the next thing he knew he is being made to wear this elaborate rope of doom. But he smells TREATS.

Hooman. Give me treats.
Now.
Where are them treats?

He shuffled in place and his eyes wandering around looking at the other kids. He stretched his back and yawned.



"Come on little one" Jillian faced the kneazle but she was a few inches away. In her hand was the treat, she placed all of them in her pocket. She can't help but smile when the kneazle yawned. Clearly it doesn't want to do the obstacle but this was an activity. And exercise is important.

She lined the treats strategically on the first obstacle. Yeah, that will make him do this. Go Go Go!


Sniff. Sniff.
Oh treats for the lazy kneazle.

He starts eating the treats he can smell. He prefers walking and maybe doing some casual jumps but no running. He had a heavy lunch today.

Successfully beginning to move Astrid throughout the course was making Faye a little more confident that they would be able to finish this soon! From the looks of it, they would not be the first to complete, but the third year would prefer to finish the course in general. (Although a decent time didn't sound like a terrible thing)

Faye had to be very strategic with her cat as they moved onto each new obstacle. But she could see that Astrid's interest was beginning to fade after they had completed the ramp and barely finished the balance beam.

Human....no more....this was boring now..Can you pick me up now and give me more snacks? It'd be very nice.

Astrid simply stopped going for the evil bird for it kept getting out of her grasp where she couldn't annihilate it as she'd planned. Was now moving on to lying down and grooming herself calmly.

Oh no! Faye could feel a little bit of anxiety beginning to build from within, but she would not let it overcome her composure! Still felt optimistic and had faith in Astrid...plus didn't want to give up or carry her the rest of the way. She needed to think fast! Hmm...Faye knew there was no time to go all the way back to find another toy when they were so close to the finish line after coming this far. Did she have anything on her that she could also use to coax Astrid away from her grooming?

She looked over herself trying to think of something for a few moments until- AHA! Faye's eyes widened as she began to loosen her school tie around her neck. Please don't scold her for this Professor.. She removed her tie from around her neck and lowered it down the ground lying it out flat and wiggling it around on the floor like a snake nearest Astrid.

Purrrr....Purrrrrr...

Was enjoying her nice bath but just then-

WHAT WAS THAT?!

Astrid's attention was immediately onto the moving striped thing taunting her....the bath can wait....back into hunter mode! She could soon be seen darting after the tie more viciously than bird that got away, determined to catch it as she followed it through another circle like the bird tried to hide in.

Faye could feel her eagerness kicking in as this plan was working and making sure to keep a safe distance with her tie so it wouldn't get ruined. Leading Astrid successfully with a jump through another hoop soon realizing the last thing they needed to go across was the seesaw before they'd finally reach the finish line.

Her blue eyes changing between the finish line, the seesaw, Astrid and her tie. Once near the last obstacle, she positioned herself in the middle of the seesaw for Astrid twirling her tie very quickly trying to coax Astrid onto the seesaw after it. Faye watched as Astrid first tried to pounce for it from below in the middle, so lead her back a few inches back to the other end to try again. Leaving the tie on the end of the seesaw closest to Astrid this time, Faye waited for Astrid to pounce and scurry across the seesaw from one end to the other and back onto the ground.

"That's it Astrid come get the tie!" 'But please don't..'

Finally Faye would successfully lead Astrid across the finish line, course completed and tie in one piece! "We did it!" She scooped up Astrid into her arms happily peppering (smothering) her cat with light kisses. "OH you really ARE such a good kitty!" Making a mental note, to definitely give Astrid extra treats when they got back to her dorm, even if there some stubborn moments that happened. Neverthelesss, she was relieved to be done...

..Now wondering how her time was.

Aboli didn't immediately swat him away, but she chuckled. "My hair is NOT a toy, Sparty," she said as she set down another treat for him to play with before he nommed on. "Delicious right? Let's try to veer...THIS WAY--" she stood, and took a step towards the little obstacle course, placing a treat further away.

At first, Sparticus didn't move. He let his tail flick about, eyeing the treat.............did he really HAVE to move to get it? This was annoying. But FINE. He streeeeeetched and leisurely made his way over to the treat, plopped down again, and ate the treat. Yum. Now what????

Aboli sighed. "Maybe the obstacle course isn't in your fortune, Sparty. Come on - " and she picked him up, ignoring his little wriggles to be FREEEEE and set him down on the first obstacle. Yikes. He hopped right off and plopped down next to her feet. She put the treat ON the first thing he had to complete - the things he had to crawl through - the skinny poles sticking up the ground. "You gotta MOVE through these!" she said as she showed him. But all Sparticus did was eat the second treat and LAY in the middle.

Merlin.

Standing the cat up on all four paws. That was.. actually, a really good idea!

SEE! This was why HE was the Professor, and she was just a student. Who would've thought getting a cat to run an obstacle course would be as EASY as standing him up!? Professor Williamson received a two-eyed wink and a finger point in his direction before all of her attention was back to her cat. They could do this. They HAD to do this. She didn't even care if it would take her the rest of the day!

Okay. She might've cared about that a little bit. But she doubted the Professor would really make her stay until the course was obstacled. He did know she was working with a broken cat, after all.

Flora bent down, ever so close to Catastrophe, and after pushing in his bleped tongue, because it looked heavy and would just slow him down even more if that was possible, she stood him up on all fours. He was wobbly. He was very wobbly, but standing he was and that's all that mattered. Now to get him to actually move.

Blep. Blep. No more blep. Up on legs. Wobble wobble. One step two step.

He. Was. Doing. IT!

Catastrophe was actually doing it. HE WAS WALKING! Flora was amazed. Flora was shocked. Flora was ASTONISHED! She was almost tempted to call Williamson over to show him that her broken cat was broken no more, but she was too in the moment and wasn't exactly sure just how long the cat's walking was going to last.

"Never underestimate a broken cat!" They were just going to walk the perimeter of the obstacle course. She doubted Merlin himself could get Catastrophe to jump through a hoop.

Blep. And the tongue was back out.

With all hope seeming lost, Ewan turned towards the voice of someone next to him offering to help him (Drew). Flashing them a smile, he simply nodded sheepishly ”Sure, I don’t think this guy” he jabbed at the cat playfully now with the feathery toy on a bit of wire ”is going to move but you’re more than welcome to try”. Working together seemed like the best option. If both of them couldn’t do it then no one could.

The black Kneazle just continued to lay there on it’s back, expecting tummy scratches, only barely aware of the fluffy thing that was floating around its peripheral vision.

”Come on Professor” he replied now as he looked at both of their cats, half exasperated, half amused. ”I mean, i’m sure they’d move if we left a line of treats across the whole course but I’m not sure how fast our time would be” he replied now, only joking obviously.

”So, do you think maybe we should focus on one of them? I think if we can get one of them around, it would be a huge victory. I mean, look at them” half laughing now at their current situation. But, he did at least have an idea to sort of get them up and going. Using the summoning charm, he quickly whizzed two of the small mouse shaped treats over that the professor had left out. ”What if we use the Locomotion charm and get them to chase two of the mice around the course? Think they’ll move for that?”. He wasn’t sure that anything would get the cats going but surely something in their DNA would force them to get up and chance a mouse?

Eyes a little more aware, the Kneazle eyed both of the both with a discerning gaze, curious what was going on. There were two of them now and not one of them was paying it any attention at the moment. That had to stop. Getting up slowly, the black Kneazle made its way over, nuzzling its head into the legs of one of the boys, its eyes screaming GIVE ME ATTENTION HUMAN!

Aboli was resorting to MAKING the kneazle walk....as in....she was holding him as she made him bounce through the first obstacle. He wasn't happy.

Not.

At.

All.

Not that he was hissing or anything, but he sure was wriggly. Once Aboli finished with it, though, she set him down and offered him a treat as retribution for his torment. "Here, Sparticus," she said as she tossed it his way. The kneazle was gobbling it up instantly. But then he was lounging again and Aboli stood up straight, hand on her hip, OUT OF BREATH. "Professor, I don't think he's going to want to do this anymore!" surely others were having the same issue?! She glanced around just to make sure.

This was going well so far. Benjie the kneazle was being very cooperative and Naya was hopeful that they would be able to get this thing done.

Benjie followed Naya all the way to the start of the obstacle course and sat down. He was going to require a little something in the way of motivation, if she wanted him to continue on this journey

Naya should have known that it was not going to be that easy. It looked as if her kneazle had a change of heart. Focusing on the positive and not the negative, she pulled out a treat and gave it to Benjie. “Good job”, Naya said while giving him a head scratch. “I have plenty more where that came from, but you are going to have to earn your treats. I know you can do it.” Glancing at the course, Naya suddenly didn’t feel quite as confident. Benjie didn’t need to know that though.

Naya went on the other side of the first hoop and called to the kneazle. “Come on Benjie. I need you to jump through the hoop. Come on. You can do it. Naya retrieved another treat and held it in front of the hoop.

Benjie was enjoying his treat, taking his time to savor every bit of it. He looked up at Naya with an eager face. More. More treats please. Why wasn’t the girl giving him more? He said please. Why was she leaving him and standing by that round thing? Surely she didn’t want him to...... No. He didn’t want a treat that badly. Yes he did. Lucky for her, Benjie was a sucker for kneazle treats. Instead of jumping, he decided to go for plan B. Benjie walked around the hoop and joined the girl. Treat please?

Naya had to laugh. This was one smart kneazle. He tried to take the easiest route. Unfortunately that was not going to work. “No Benjie. You have to jump to get the treat. She led him back to the front of the hoop and tried to demonstrate by sticking her arm through the hoop. ”Jump means treat.“ Back to the other side she went with her treat. “Come on Benjie. Jump.” At the rate they were going, they would never finish the obstacle course before class was over.

Benjie was getting it, he just didn’t feel like jumping. Alas, his desire for a treat made him stand and eye the round thingy. Keeping his eye on the prize, he moved forward and jumped through the hoop. Ok now treat?

“You did it”, Naya said enthusiastically. After giving Benjie a well deserved pat, she handed over the treat. “Great job! How about we do it again?” Naya waited for the kneazle to finish his treat and walked behind the second hoop. “One more time?”

Again? The girl was nice and gave good head pats, but Benjie was getting a little tired of this activity. Couldn’t he just get a treat and a pat and call it a day?

Cole stood up, and sat down his orange abessinier cat Elena on the ground to get a better view of the obstacle course they had to complete. "Come on Elena!" he called behind him as he started to slowly walk towards the starting line. Only Elena wasn’t coming she had curled up in an orange ball on to top of the haybale.

It was warm and comfy here where her hooman had sat and she wasn’t going to move. After scratching a little with her paws on the hay, Elena closed her eyes to go to sleep even if it was hard in this racket of voices.

Cole had almost come to the starting line when he realized that Elena wasn’t with him. Looking behind him, he saw her lying on the hay bale contentedly. With a small sigh he walked back to her, stopping to fill his left pocket with treats and the other with some different toys. Lastly he chose a harness before going back to his cat. At Elenas side he carefully started to put the harness on around her neck and stomach. With it safely set Cole pulled out a tuna treat that he dangled in front of her nose. "Come on Elena, let’s go race!"

Elena felt how her hooman fastened something around her neck and stomach, but she didn’t move. She was trying to sleep. The smell of TUNA though caught her full interest. Lifting her head up, quick as a bolt, she sniffed the air. Where was the juicy tuna? Straightening up on all fours, she reluctantly jumped down from the bale and followed after her hooman.

At the starting line Cole leaned down to give Elena her tuna treat. "Here, can you help me score the best time now? It will be fun. I promise." Pulling out a big cat toy that hang from a fishing stick and to Cole’s ears didn’t smell totally awful he coaxed with it. "Let’s go Elena!"

Tuuuuuuuuuuna, yummy. Licking her mouth with her tongue in satisfaction Elena, looked around for more tasty treats. None were in sight, but there was a rat on stick. She didn’t like toys on sticks but her hooman didn’t know that. She followed him though towards the hoops.

"Jump through the hoops Elena, Come on!" Cole encouraged as he jangled with the rat stick and also pulled out another tuna treat that he waved around with. Anything to get her running.

Elena jumped through the first hoop without effort and saw Cole running beside her and then she suddenly skidded to halt in front of the black hoop and didn’t budge an inch.

Cole muttered something unhearable as he approached his cat, trying to discern why she had stopped. Leaning down to scratch her behind her ears, he heard some content purring. "Just one more hoop Elena then we are free of them."

Elena, kept purring for a little while before she jumped through the hoop and continued to run over the seesaws beams without needing Cole’s encouraging or coaxing. Was it too much to ask for some show of appreciation like a scratch or a tuna treat along the way? Falling down on her side for more hooman attention.

"That was awesome Elena!" Cole said with delight and equal happiness as he sat down on the grass to scratch Elena on her belly, knowing full well that it was a risk that he’d get bitten. Throwing her a treat or two he asked "Wasn’t this fun? Shall we complete the course now?"

Meowing Elena tried to bite onto Cole’s hand, but she kept missing it. The treats distracted her. Munching on the delicious tuna, she had snatched Elena decided to give into her dear hoomans wishes. She could be a good cat and complete the last hurdles. Straightening up, she was ready to get going.

Cole got the hint and with the rat toy he demonstrated. “You have to weave through next these hurdles, like in zig-zag motion….” Waving with the toy stick his cat got moving.

What was the hooman wanting her to do with the sticks? She was a CAT not an alpine skiier. Elena got busy licking her paws until that toy got waved in front of her nose again. It smelled so nice so Elena got moving elegantly through the stickiesss. Weave, Weave, Weave.

"Perfect! We’re done Elena!"Cole cried out happily, as they had completed the course and he could scoop up his cat into his arms to give her a large hug and some well deserved scratching. Remembering the treats in his pockets, he pulled out a handful that he held out to her.

Elena, was in heaven. She got to be cuddled and got treats after completing a course. No other cat had it much better.

Ooooh, Merlin. The Professor was watching him fail already. This was bad. Really bad. He knew about creatures. If his dad and sister could see him now they'd surely be shaking their heads at him. "It seems that way, Sir, but I can handle it." His current tactic might not be working as planned but he was smart. All he had to do was figure out what captures Thierry's attention.

Think, Lukas, think.

Thierry closed his eyes. He may very well take a nap. Yes, a nap right here on the grass sounded nice. Sleeeeeeeeep.

Oh, come on! Lukas breathed out a soft sigh. His kneazle was napping. Now. This wasn't playing out like he had hoped. Turning the ball with the bell inside over in his hand he remembered something. Treats. He had put treats in his pocket. Reaching into his pocket he pulled out the small amount of treats. He broke them each in half and stuck a few pieces through the slots of the toy ball, shaking it to make sure the treats wouldn't fall out easily. The rest of the treats he kept in his closed fist.

"Heyyyyy Thierry, look what I have..." he walked over to the kneazle and knelt down. "Here you go, boy. This is for you." Laying a bit of a treat at the kneazle's paws. Hopefully this would work.

Sniiiiiiiiiff. What was that? Smell good. A treat? Yes, he would like a treat. Good, human giving him treats! Bright icy blue eyes opened up and before the human could blink that treat was gobbled right up. More pleeeeeeease.

It worked! Sort of. Thierry was awake so it was a start. "Want some more? I have more right here. See?" Lukas opened his hand up so Thierry could see and smell the treats he was holding. "You can have them if you follow me. Or... " Pause. Jingles the ball with the bell and treats inside. "If you can get this you can have what's inside." Hopefully that was incentive enough to get him moving. "Come on now..." He rose to his feet, holding the toy down low and jingling it again as he moved towards the obstacle course.

Mooooore treats. Hey, hey, come back here little human. Where was he going with those treats. Could smell them. Treats were yummy. Wanted more. Follow the human for treats. Yes, yes can do that. First must stretccccccch his paws and yawwwwwwn. One his paws he moved after the treats!

Lukas grinned widely. Thierry was following him! Progress was being made. "That's right. Come get the yummy treats." Jingling the ball in his hand letting Thierry sniff the treats when he got close. "Here we go, Thierry, up the ramp you go." The Ravenclaw jogged alongside the ramp keeping the toy a few inches in front of the kneazle the entire time. "Awesome! This way." Onto to the area where they had to weave around pole things. Yes, he did weave his way through it in front of Thierry praising the kneazle the entire time. Seesaw, uhhhhh, alright. He moved to a faster jog alongside the seesaw, they wouldn't fit on it together and he wasn't about to run over it ahead of the kneazle and cause an accident! Luckily Thierry followed those treats really well!

Sniff. Sniff. Yummy. Treats were close. Up this thing, then down. Back and forth following the human with yummies. Want yummies. Upppp seesaw annnnd whoa! it went down!.. leaps off swatting at the toy that human held. Treats still there...

"We're almost there and these are all yours!" Lukas jumped over the low hurdle followed closely by the kneazle. Ummmm... Hoops?! Quickening his jog he ran to the other side of the hoop dangling and jingling the toy through the hoop so Thierry would leap through each one. When they reached the final one, Lukas tossed the toy through the hoop and watched it hit the grass and roll a few feet. "Get it, Thierry!"

Leap, leap, leeeeeap! Tired. No mo- What happened?! His treeeeats! Right through that hoop he went darting after that toy and batting it around with his paw when he reached it. Picking it up in his mouth. The prize was hiss.

They did it! Well Thierry did it. Whatever. All that mattered was they were done! Grinning brightly, he walked over to his kneazle and scooped him up into his arms. "These are for you. You earned them." He opened his hand offering the few small bits of treats.

He was being lifted. Ooooh! Treeeeats! Yeeeees.

Tom listened to what the Professor was saying, but seriously he wasn't the boss of the cat, the cat had feeling and it might not want to do the obstacle course. He wouldn't want someone to force him to do it. So he would let the cat decided on it's own and the Professor could punish him for it, FREEDOM of SPEECH for cats, right. Hermione once did S.P.E.W maybe he should do S.P.C.W.

Tom turned back towards the kneazle and smiled politely at it. "If you want to do the course then we'll do it." He then waited to see what the Kneazle would do. He just watched and waited seriously why couldn't Kneazles or Cats speak?

W³ was taking his dear, sweet time replying to her request for a treat, so Isla decided to tackle the next part of the obstacle course in the meantime. She had enough of the treat left to break it into two, sort of equal pieces anyway. Looking up, she noticed a see-saw ahead of them. Great. This looked good and difficult as far as kneazle training went.

Maleficent started to wander off towards who-knew-what, so Isla gave a gentle tug of the harness and steered her back on track. "Whatever you do, don't poop. Kindly save that til after I'm done with my punishment, please," she said, talking more to herself than to the kneazle. It was wishful thinking, at least.

She scooped up the same little ball she'd been using and rubbed the treat along it once again. The scent should be pretty strong by now, but this was only Maleficent's first day of training, so who knew what would work best.

So...a see-saw. What would be the best way to do this? Isla placed the ball on one end of the see-saw.

Maleficent sniffed around then followed the scent to the first part of the see-saw. As she stepped on it, the other side moved up. She was still sniffing the ball when her owner gently pressed down on the opposite side, causing Maleficent to rise up. Her owner placed a piece of the treat on the far end of the see-saw, so without thinking too much on the matter, the kneazle walked the see-saw like a trapeze and claimed her prize.

"Yes!" Isla said, giving a slight fist pump as Maleficent cleared the see-saw. So let's see, they'd jumped through a hoop, walked a winding pathway, and now cleared a see-saw. All that was left was to bee-line to the finish line, and that would be that. Isla collected the ball, for no other reason than she just needed to clean up, and then she tossed the last of the treat across the finish line. Hopefully Maleficent would snatch it up before someone else's pet did.

Maleficent dashed forward, taking her owner on a little jog with her. She crossed the finish line and gobbled up the remaining piece of her treat.

Isla pet her kneazle and gently removed the harness. Hopefully W³ had that second treat ready, because she had one awesome kneazle to give a reward to.

"You're a stubborn one, aren't you?" Cecelia eyed Mate, picking up a few of the treats and bringing them over to him. She set them down by his little feeties and moved off to the side, an idea having formed in her head. She knew JUST how to get him moving, she just needed to catch him off guard.

The human was finally catching on and Mate's tail was high, his belly about to be happy with the treats he was being given. He hadn't even had to lift a paw. Humans were easy, especially the small ones. He om nom nommed, head bowed, paying the girl child no mind now that he had what he'd wanted all along.

Sneaking off down to the end of the course, Cecelia hid behind one of the obstacles and sloooooowly moved one of the toy mouses into Mate's line of sight. She waited a moment, and then wiggled it some, and then pulled it back. "Come on, Mate. Come get the mouse." She repeated the action, leaving the mouse out in the open for a few more seconds this time...and continued this, trying to tempt the kneazle to come to her.

Wait, where had the child gone? He was done with this game and would very much like to go back to his home now. She needed to stop with this-oh. Hello little intruder. Ears pointed forward, Mate watched, his nose sniff sniff sniffing. He didn't smell anything different, but the movement held his interest.

Mate padded forward, lurking towards the mouse. A few steps and he'd stop, and watch, and wait, then a few more.

When he was close enough, tail flicking, back arching, body ready, Mate POUNCED, right on over the finish line.

It was all going very swimmingly until she started to feel a tickling sensation in her nose --- aaaaand she knew what was coming. She tried to stop it but honestly who could stop a sneeze??? So, there it was - a quick and meek little sneeze - followed by an embarrassed “excuse me”. Ugh, this was exactly why she was dreading this class.

Trying to push past the paranoia of sneezing some more, she smiled as Nina returned with some toys.

The toys, which the kitty clearly LOVED. BECAUSE OOOOOOO WHATS THAT? Wiggling his paw at it, he tried grabbing it - before leaping at Nina’s robes and meowing loud. GIMME GIMMMEEEEE.

WELP.

Missa almost laughed, but it come out as another sneeze. Oh merlin.

“Sorry, sorry - looks like this is working though” she quickly said, picking up the other toy and daaangling it too in front of the little one. “Come on, lets gooo, come on now” she cooed - while walking backwards and leading him through the obstacle course.

Hopefully Eiji was watching.

UP AND DOWN, let me have it, let me have it - the cat rolled and jumped, absolutely LOVING his human persons. Meowing and while going round and round their feet he moved - almost making one of them fall too.

"MORGAN FINN!!"

She couldn't help the shocked outburst when he said about the professor having work done. She hadn't even got to answer him about him being mum's teacher when she heard that she froze. Shaking her head she just looked forward again hoping that the professor wouldn't be too upset. She watched as Teacup took the treat and gobbled it up with a small smile she scratched behind the feline's ears.

Once the professor started to speak again and talk about what they were going to do she just looked at Teacup and wondered if she would actually do the task or not. Her cat wasn't one to actually listen most days. "What do you think? Can we do this?"

Teacup just looked up at her and headed towards Ewan and Drew to see what their animals were doing. She gave them both a hiss to let them know she was boss and then starred from a bit of a distance.

"For Merlin's sake Teacup." She walked over and scooped up her cat, "Sorry, she likes to be in charge." Giving a Ewan a look knowing he knew what Teacup like, but oh, hello seventh year Gryffindor she didn't know. She pulled her hair back over her shoulder and smiled. "Didn't mean to interrupt you two. Are.. are you doing well with your cats? Any advice for a stubborn one?" Giving Ewan a look like, introduce please...

This was not what Teacup had in mind she scratched her humans are to be put down before taking off towards the professor.

"Teacup, come on..."